Also, how many others have made a double-century and taken ten-fors in Tests like Holder?
Steven Lynch05-Feb-2019Jason Holder’s 202 in the first Test against England means he has scored a double-century and also taken ten wickets in a Test. How many people have done this? asked Ricardo Harrison from Barbados
A few months before Jason Holder scored that magnificent unbeaten 202 in Barbados, he took 11 for 103 in the match against Bangladesh in Kingston last June. Holder was the sixth to complete this particular double in Tests. Pride of place should perhaps go to the Indian allrounder Vinoo Mankad, who made two double-centuries (both against New Zealand in 1955-56) and also had two ten-fors – against England and Pakistan. Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan might yet join him: he has got one double-century (217 against New Zealand in Wellington in 2016-17) and two ten-fors so far.Wasim Akram took ten or more wickets in a match five times, and also hit a spectacular unbeaten 257 against Zimbabwe at Sheikhupura in 1996-97. Ian Botham managed four ten-fors, and clattered 208 against India at The Oval in 1982.The most surprising name on this list is probably that of Australia’s Allan Border. It’s no shock to find he scored two double-centuries – one against New Zealand and one against England – but although he only took 39 Test wickets in all, 11 of them came in an upset win over West Indies in Sydney in 1988-89.Is Jason Holder the tallest man to score a double-century in a Test? asked David Horton from England
Measuring in at 201 cm or 6′ 7″, Jason Holder does seem to be the tallest man ever to score a Test double-century. Players’ heights are sometimes inconsistently recorded – or not recorded at all – but I suspect he took the mark from Jason Gillespie, who stands 195 cm, or about 6′ 5″. The tallest Test centurion was probably Tony Greig, at around 6′ 7.5″ (202 cm). Tom Moody and Jacob Oram were also imposingly tall, while “Two Metre Peter” Fulton of New Zealand scored his only two centuries in the same Test, against England in Auckland in 2012-13.West Indies scored 306 in Antigua with only one score of 50. Are there any higher totals with no half-centuries at all? asked Alex McMaster from England
Darren Bravo’s hard-working 50 was the highest score of West Indies’ 306 against England in North Sound the other day, although three others got into the forties. There are two higher Test totals that didn’t include an individual half-century: England made 315 against West Indies in Port-of-Spain in 1985-86, when David Gower’s 47 was the highest individual score. And in Johannesburg in 2015-16, South Africa made 313 against England: everyone made it into double figures, but the highest score was Dean Elgar’s 46.Imam-ul-Haq reached his first 1000 runs in 19 innings, the second fastest after team-mate Fakhar Zaman•Getty ImagesImam-ul-Haq just completed 1000 runs in ODIs, with five centuries. Is this a record for a player’s first thousand? asked Krishna Gunugunuri from the United States
That’s a good spot, because Imam-ul-Haq is only the third player whose first 1000 runs in ODIs have included five centuries, and he needed only 19 innings – fewer than the other two. South Africa’s Quinton de Kock had five centuries in his first 1000 runs, which took 21 innings, while Upul Tharanga of Sri Lanka needed 28 innings. Imam was the second-fastest from anywhere to reach 1000 ODI runs, in terms of innings: his opening partner, Fakhar Zaman, got there one quicker last year. De Kock, Babar Azam, Kevin Pietersen, Viv Richards and Jonathan Trott all took 21 innings.In the recent Test at Canberra, Dimuth Karunaratne, who had previously retired hurt, resumed his innings when someone else retired hurt. Has this ever happened before in a Test? asked Sam Packman from Australia
This incident in the first ever Test at Canberra’s Manuka Oval was certainly very unusual. Dimuth Karunaratne, who had earlier been hit by a bouncer, resumed his innings when Kusal Perera suffered the same fate. As far as I can see there have been only two previous instances of this (and I’m grateful to Charles Davis for confirming my memory). One reason there have been so few is that, until a law change in the 1980s, a retired batsman was supposed only to resume his innings at the fall of a wicket. However, in Sydney in 1975-76, Michael Holding retired hurt after being hit in the face by Greg Chappell from what turned out to be the last ball of the first day: he tried to resume first thing next morning but was told he couldn’t, and in came Bernard Julien, who had retired himself the previous day after having his thumb broken by Jeff Thomson. “Apparently the permissiveness of modern society extended as far as the laws of cricket,” wrote Frank Tyson. “Neither umpire raised any objection to Julien’s unlawful climb back on the batting bandwagon.”The second case also involved West Indies in 1990-91, by which time the rather illogical law had been changed. Against Australia in Kingston, Desmond Haynes retired hurt after being hit on the toe by Craig McDermott, but resumed when McDermott hit Gus Logie near the eye – he needed nine stitches – and was also forced to retire.Use our feedback form or the Ask Steven Facebook page to ask your stats and trivia questions